Vanishing Vision

The landmark debut album by X Japan, and the first release on the independent record labelExtasy. One could even say that Vanishing Vision is the original reason for Extasy's existence, since it was the lack of a record label for the album that compelled Yoshiki to create the company in the first place.

Vanishing Vision displays how much X Japan developed during their decade of releasing music: the songs are largely thrash metal, without a single romanticballad that the band became famous for in later years. The English lyrics (or perhaps, more appropriately, 'Engrish') are rough and sometimes ridiculous, in contrast with the soft sounds associated with albums like Dahlia.

Still, the album made a huge impression on Japanese rock music, and was the first independently produced album to place in a significant position on the Oricon charts.